Caroline Peper has been playing at NYU long enough that she remembers what a loss feels like, let alone what Scranton was like the last time the two teams met up. There isn't much for either team to take away from that game in terms of X's and O's, but the teams won't lack for motivation in this national semifinal which matches the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country. NYU athletics photo by Vincent Dusovic

By Riley Zayas
The Scoop on D3 Women’s Hoops

On a March evening in New York City two seasons ago, a pair of traditional powerhouses in Division III met for the right to advance to the Final Four. 

In the aftermath, an elated Meg Barber would remember the 68-46 NYU win as her first sectional final victory as a head coach, the culmination of years of work and going through back-to-back gut-wrenching losses in that same stage of the NCAA Tournament in the two years prior. On the other side, Scranton coach Ben O’Brien would file it away as a learning opportunity for his Lady Royals, who came away more determined than ever to reach the final weekend of the tournament. 

When the final buzzer sounded on that night in NYU’s Paulson Center, it marked the beginning of two journeys — one for NYU, the other for Scranton — neither squad knowing that those paths would converge in a rematch two years later with a spot in the national title game on the line. 

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NYU went on to win the national title that year, knocking off Transylvania and Smith in back-to-back games for the program’s first championship since 1997. The Violets again won it all last season, becoming the first back-to-back national champ since Amherst in 2018, and still hasn’t lost to this point, a win streak that now stands No. 2 all-time in college basketball history. 

From SportsCenter shout-outs to lengthy feature stories penned by national publications, NYU’s success has become a conversation topic in basketball circles from coast to coast. 

Scranton, meanwhile, overcame the NYU loss in 2024 with another strong regular season a year ago, only to be knocked off in the sectional final round for a second straight season by an upset-minded UW-Stout team. But the third time was the charm for Scranton, who blazed a dominant trail through the regular season and hasn’t misstepped once in the tournament, sealing its spot in Salem with a long-anticipated win over Concordia-Moorhead. 

Now here they both are, on the precipice of Thursday’s national semifinal, the two heavyweights headlining a matchup that fits right into a Hollywood script. The No. 1 team in the nation, unbeaten for three seasons running — a Division III-record 91 consecutive games — is paired with the No. 2 team in the land, one whose national title hopes were dashed two seasons before by their aforementioned top-ranked challenger. 

And it comes on the biggest stage in the sport on a weekend in which a national champion is set to be crowned. 

Few national semifinal games are capable of matching a storyline with that level of intrigue. 

“It feels like a national championship game, just with how we’re [ranked],” NYU junior forward Yasmene Clark said earlier this week. “It’s two powerhouse teams playing each other. Obviously with Scranton’s record and our record, it’ll be a cool matchup on either side of the court.” 

Just as it was two seasons ago, there is immense starpower on both rosters, and both squads are ranked in the Top 5 nationally in defensive efficiency. But as both teams — student-athletes and coaches alike — are quick to point out, these are not the same two teams that met in the 2024 sectional final in Manhattan. 

“We as a team are different; they’re completely different, too,” NYU junior guard Eden Williamson added. “So yes, it’s cool to play Scranton again, but it’s a completely different matchup than last time.”

The names on the front of their jerseys are unchanged and the commitment to excellence remains unwavering, but that might as well be where the true similarities end. In the minds of both head coaches, Thursday will be a distinctly different game, with four new starters on each side compared to the last time Barber and O’Brien’s highly touted teams took the floor against each other. 

NYU is also not the same team stylistically any longer, far more intent on pushing the pace and less reliant on a traditional post player, as they were with 2023 National Player of the Year Morgan Morrison in 2023-24. Of course, Scranton was neither undefeated nor No. 2 in the D3hoops.com Top 25 the last time they met, either. 

“Our group is a bit younger,” Barber, in her seventh season as NYU’s head coach, noted. “I don’t know that many of them know a lot of the history, and we’re not spending a whole lot of time talking about it. We’ve been in that seat before, having lost to Transylvania to go to a Final Four and then the very next year, having the chance to defend that loss. 

“But this is a little different. It’s been a couple years; their team is very different, we’re very different. I mean, we played around Morgan Morrison in 2024. There’s nothing that really compares this [NYU] team to that on paper.” 

Kaci Kranson, Scranton’s leading scorer at 18.4 points per game and a two-time D3hoops.com Region 5 Player of the Year, made a similar point in talking about the matchup earlier this week. When she lines up for Thursday’s opening tip, the senior guard will be the only Scranton player to start in both NCAA Tournament duels against the Violets. 

Along the way, from her sophomore campaign to the present moment, she has witnessed the program evolve around her. That growth is the reason why the Lady Royals are back into their first national semifinal since 2019 and why they pose an immense threat to NYU’s historic win streak. 

Kaci Kranson scored 10 points for Scranton against NYU two years ago. Now, she's 13 points short of 2,000 for her career. Scranton athletics photo

“We have a totally different team this year, and we’ve grown so much from that game,” Kranson said Monday. “NYU had such a great team that year; they were unstoppable. But that left a bad taste in our mouths, so we are ready and focused to get into this final four game.”

O’Brien explains it similarly when the topic is brought up. 

“Anytime you play a high-level team, you learn a lot from that experience,” Scranton’s fourth-year head coach added. “Certainly we like to believe we learned a lot from that NYU game and games that have happened since. Anytime we lose, it leaves a very bad taste in our mouth, and we do everything we can and are determined not to let it happen again. So we’re going to do everything we can this week to prepare, have a great week of practice, and our objective is to be the best versions of ourselves on Thursday.” 

There may be little past history with the opponent for most of those who will play big minutes Thursday night. But when 40 minutes decides a spot in the title game, win streaks, rematches, and rankings all become secondary. Scranton certainly hasn’t forgotten how the last game with NYU unfolded, but the Lady Royals are more concerned with how their journey since that sectional final defeat has prepared them for the moment that lies ahead. With a win, they would send Scranton — a storied program with nine Final Four appearances — to the national title game for the first time since winning it all in 1985. 

“We don’t think about — or talk about — the big picture very often,” O’Brien, who is 116-6 at Scranton, said. “We are just committed to giving our full attention to the task that’s ahead of us. So whether it’s a practice or a game, we prepare for all of them in the same way. Our team is committed to playing relentlessly on both ends of the court for 40 minutes, one play at a time. We’ve been doing that all season. It has shown up as it relates to the consistency of our results this season, and we’ll take the same approach this week.” 

That relentlessness has paid dividends for Scranton in tournament play, with the Lady Royals’ four must-win games to this point featuring three conference tournament champs and the No. 12 and No. 20 teams in the nation. The collective margin of victory through their run in March is an astounding 36.5 points, and they have shot above 43 percent from the field in all four of those wins, numbers that make Thursday’s matchup far more of a toss-up than games involving NYU are typically accustomed to. For a team with 91 consecutive victories and the eyes of the nation upon them, facing that reality is welcomed motivation.

“I don’t really think anyone in our locker room is locked into the Scranton from two years ago,” Barber said, when asked about NYU’s mindset going in. “What we are trying to generate is an understanding of, ‘Hey, this is the first time in a long time that some people are picking against you.’ I do think that’s something for this team that’s motivating us. Big picture, this group has done a lot of work to be in the position they’re in, and are looking forward to tipping off in another Final Four.” 

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NYU’s prominence in its win streak has been accompanied by a passing of the torch in this season in particular. Belle Pellecchia and Natalie Bruns, two of the biggest names in the Violets’ back-to-back title seasons, graduated, leaving All-American-caliber voids in both the post and at point guard. Against an unforgiving UAA schedule, that youth presented a variable not necessarily present in either of the previous two championship campaigns. But the Violets did not miss a beat in yet another perfect regular season, turning to Caroline Peper, Brooke Batchelor, Yasmene Clark, and other returners who stepped even further into the spotlight. 

Throughout last season’s run, Barber spoke highly of her scout-teamers and second-teamers, and the role they had behind the scenes in prepping the starting five for the tests to come on gameday. As it turns out, those starters were prepping them too, to take the reins of the streak they started and carry it on, even with the roster looking different than it did when the streak began in 2023-24. 

“Their presence at practice showed me how to play against size,” Clark, NYU’s leading rebounder at 10.4 rebounds per game, said of facing All-American forwards Morgan Morrison and Natalie Bruns daily over her first two years in the program. “I’m a bit undersized in the post, and because I was usually playing against them every day in practice, it was helpful, especially for this year and having the pressure of starting. They really showed me the way.” 

A season ago, Clark averaged a mere 5.7 minutes per game and came off the bench in all 30 contests she appeared in, playing just one minute over the course of NYU’s stay in Salem. Twelve months later, the Duncan, South Carolina native has started in 21 games, including all four in the NCAA Tournament. 

It is the perfect representation of why the streak remains ongoing heading into another national semifinal.

“I said it all the time last year, and I don’t think people believed me, but I said, ‘We have the probably the best scout team in the country with the best second team in the country,’ ” Barber said Tuesday. “You’re seeing that right now. Those players that had to play against All-Americans and National Players of the Year night-in and night-out in practice for two full years got to hit the stage this year with the bright lights. They were unfazed.”

Katie Gorski, a star of the sectional weekend wins for Scranton, can relate. A versatile junior, who is listed as a “guard/forward” on the Lady Royals’ roster, she started one game over her first two years in the program.

But in this memorable campaign, Gorski has not come out of the starting lineup once in Scranton’s 31-0 start. More than that, she has emerged as a vital piece of the scoring attack, putting up 23 points in the Lady Royals’ “Sweet 16” win over Bates before shooting 6-of-9 the following day in the victory that sent Scranton on the road to Salem. 

“The coaching staff has been awesome with helping everyone grow,” Gorski said. “Me and Kaci [Kranson] have been playing together since my freshman year, her sophomore year, and the way I’ve seen her and a lot of my other teammates grow, it’s no doubt because of our coaching staff and the teammates around us. My love for basketball has grown so much since I came to Scranton.” 

For as much as both squads have relied on veteran juniors and seniors stepping up in the pursuit of a storybook season, each has been bolstered by new faces in 2025-26, another dynamic of the matchup that makes it different from the meeting two tournaments ago. At NYU, Aila Kaibara and Olivia Lagao run the point, true freshmen helping steer an offense putting up 88.2 points per game, with both first-years shouldering the weight of such a crucial role, Barber said. 

“The transition from high school to college basketball isn’t easy; there’s a reason why there’s always a learning curve,” Williamson said of the new faces in the rotation. “But I think they have handled the ebbs and flows, the bumps and bruises, and taken it all in stride. Specifically in the second half of the season through conference play, they’ve really shown that they’re ready, have learned everything they needed to learn and are capable of handling everything that comes with a college season.”

At Scranton, Sophia Talutto has done the same thing, averaging 18.9 minutes off the bench in what has been a reunion with O’Brien, who coached her as a freshman at Dunmore High School. Talutto made numerous deep postseason runs at one of northeastern Pennsylvania’s strongest high school programs, meaning the only thing different for the first-year guard this March has been the uniform she’s wearing. High-pressure tournament games are nothing new. 

“Dunmore set that tone for me when I was younger,” Talutto said earlier this week. “Having Coach O’Brien be my coach as a freshman was cool to be a part of. I played with a lot of really good players over the years, and having a run at states every year definitely prepared me for these types of moments in the NCAA Tournament.” 

By this point, the entire Lady Royals roster is prepared for what lies ahead. This may be the first time any of them have ever stepped on the floor with a national championship game appearance on the line, coaching staff included, but they have already surpassed the duration of the tournament runs from each of O’Brien’s first three years leading the program. They’ve sat in the No. 2 spot in the Top 25 all season, somewhat quietly building a polished resume of their own that stacks up with what could be considered Division III basketball’s first dynasty since the WashU teams of the late ‘90s and early 2000s. Thursday is their chance to prove it. 

“Growing up in Scranton, the University of Scranton Lady Royals were always in the news as the big powerhouse of the NCAA,” Kranson said, explaining her lifelong connection to the program she now stars for. “To be a part of this special team is something I’ll never forget. I consider myself very lucky to be part of it. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else besides here. Coming down to this last week of basketball ever, I’m taking it all in, one moment at a time.” 

It is a slightly different story for NYU, who cut down nets inside the Cregger Center only a year ago. The only memories these current Violets have of Salem revolve around two dominant victories on their way to a second consecutive title. Now they have returned in a quest for a third. For as much as NYU was expected to be here again, Barber hasn’t taken these tournament runs for granted, even as the win streak continues garnering headlines. 

“Even though this is our third year in a row, just being lifelong basketball fans, these moments can be fleeting,” Barber, an NYU alum, said. “You really want to enjoy it while you have the moment. I think in that sense, it helps to have a familiarity of what the experience itself is going to be like, and to maybe be able to enjoy the moment a little more than allowing the stress to consume you.”

The familiarity with the environment is something NYU believes will work to its advantage, particularly for the returners, including Williamson and Batchelor, who played significant minutes in Salem last season. Ultimately, for as many storylines surround Thursday night and the magnitude of the stage the game will be played, the Violets aren’t overcomplicating the challenge at hand.

“It’s really all about our preparation and how we go into it with our own mindset,” Batchelor, who leads the team with 80 steals, said: “The coaches do such an amazing job with our scout, and everyone in practice is so focused. We’re going to lean into that for this one, just like every other game we’ve played, and use that as confidence going into this game.” 

And they cannot wait for tipoff, fully understanding what this national semifinal entails. 

“Whenever the best plays the best, it’s always a good matchup,” Williamson said this week with excitement in her voice. “We’re excited to get out there and compete.”